The Crucible of Albus Dumbledore
by Charlemagne
Summary: After a horrofic tragedy Albus Dumbledore contemplates taking his own life


Disclaimer: I own nothing of Albus Dumbledore or any of the other   
Harry Potter characters. This story is set a year after Harry   
Potter's graduation in the midst of the controversy and rebuilding of   
wizardly society after the horrors of the "Voldemort incident"   
described "After Hogwarts" at http://www.harrypotterah.homestead.com/   
and on the Yahoogroup list   
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HarrypotterAH though you don't need to   
have read it to understand the story.  
  
One year ago  
Albus Dumbeldore's office  
1:54 A.M.  
  
Albus Dumbledore was going to die. It was something he'd known he was   
going to do for quite some time but he'd never actually expected that   
it would be at his own hands. Albus had always expected to die   
surounded by friends and loved ones or perhaps in mortal combat with   
some terrible Arch-wizard. Instead he was sitting in his office alone   
with his cookoo-clock approaching two o'clock with a nicely written   
scroll detailing his reasons for suicide next to his left hand and   
his wand waiting for the killing spell next to his right.  
  
"Well I had best get this over with now shouldn't I." Albus felt the   
white of his beard even as Fawkes looked at his accusingly on a   
nearby perch. The Phoneix was a symbol of everlasting life, curious   
for a bird which died routinely, and it was obvious the old bird had   
no desire for him to take the action that he was about to do. Albus   
had left instructions on whom Fawkes was going to pass into the care   
of in his letter but he was sure Fawkes would go to whomever he felt   
was next most full of life.  
  
'And I feel very dead inside.' Albus shook his head and thought of the  
reasons why he was taking the Coward's way out.  
  
***  
  
9 a.m. That morning  
Ministry of Magic Building  
Third Period of Voldemort inquires   
  
Benjamen Stormblower, the new Minister of Magic was sitting behind   
the black obsidian table which had been newly installed for these   
inquiries. The chambers were different than the old ministry building   
trial rooms and much more cold and uncomfortable to Albus. The fact   
that the old building had been destroyed in a Dementor attack led by   
Lucius Malfoy made the building simply another reminder of the former   
Headmaster's abject failure.  
  
"Archwizard Dumbledore can you describe what steps you took to deal   
with the...staggering...loss of life upon Voldemort's assault on   
Hogwarts?" Benjamen asked as his gaze pierced the old magician's   
heart. The Scottish sorcerer had been a Hogwarts allumni when Albus   
was merely the Transfigurations teacher and it hurt the Wizard deeply   
to see one of his old students look at him like this.  
  
"There wasn't much that could be done Minister." Albus said, he was   
dressed in a black plain wizard's robe with no pointed hat or   
adornment. His shoulders were sagging and the life had gone out of   
him. There was nothing wise, majestic, or magical about the   
Headmaster of Hogwarts now as he looked like nothing more than an old   
man broken by life. Albus always did believe one's face reflected   
the truth in a man.  
  
"Tell us Headmaster. We need a positive record of what happened for   
these proceedings." Alastor Moody had been made Director of the Auror   
Inquisitor's board that had been given sweeping powers in the   
aftermath of Voldemort's death to try and contain the perils of Dark   
wizardry forever. It was comforting to Albus that his old friend was   
in charge but it disturbed him to no end that in the wake of such   
tragedy so many families were taking bloody revenge. Alastor had lost   
his reputation as a paranoid old man and become a moderate in the   
public eye. A moderate whose opinions had not changed but the   
climate which now loved them and went beyond them.  
  
"As you know Voldemort was able to escape the trap the ministry had   
laid for him with an invisibility spell and hidden broomstick. Master   
Potter, Mistress Hermione, and Sir Black then divided themselves up   
with some old friends of mine to track him down...which they   
eventually did to the Caer Snape..." Albus spoke very softly and   
tried to shake the images out of his head. He had the further guilt   
of knowing that because he had failed to kill Voldemort then and   
there, Severus's wife had died. Severus didn't blame Albus for the   
event but the guilt was there still.   
  
"Where the leader of the Death Eaters died in a conflaguration caused   
by his own spells along with Mister Black who held him there. We're   
aware Master Albus, we're concerned about the steps you took to try   
and save those under your cares's lives." Armando Lestrange was the   
new head of Education following his 'heroism' against the   
Deatheaters. It shuddered Albus that the public would praise a man   
for murdering his parents in cold blood no matter how evil they were.  
  
"Yes. There weren't any steps however that could be taken   
Secretary....the Fusionic Reaction spell that had been set off..."   
Albus didn't know how to describe the horror of what was recorded in   
the burning remanents of a place children should have been laughing,   
eating, safe. The smell, the silence, the darkness.  
  
"Murderer!" a voice rang out from the back of the Trial chambers and   
Albus turned around weakly to see Anne Magrew the mother of five   
Hufflepuff students. All of them who'd been in the blast and none of   
them had been older than their second year. She was being forcibly   
restrained by the Aurors at the door but was shoving herself past   
them to shout at Albus. "You lying stinking son of a dragon! You   
said they would be safer at Hogwarts!" she shouted at the top of her   
lungs. Tears were streaming down her eyes as she was finally shoved   
through the ironwood doors and they were locked against further   
intrusion.  
  
Albus put his hands to his face and let his own tears string down.  
  
"Now that the disturbance has been dealt with, let us resume the   
inquiry." Armando Lestrange said causally.  
  
***  
  
Albus Dumbledore had been found not guilty of any negligence by the   
Tribunal and the appointed Wizardly jury. The Jury had been   
carefully screened by his lawyer and thus sentiment was that he was   
actually a hero of the 'War' against Voldemort who had the foresight   
to prepare when inept leadership had failed the Wizardly community.   
  
'Poor Cornelius.' Albus thought, sickened by what had happened to the   
inept minister who had died in Voldemort's initial assault. He had   
been a good man with a family and his only crime had been hoping too   
strongly for peace.  
  
The current Minister of Magic had seen it clearly that Albus had   
utterly failed the students put in his care and the Headmaster of   
Hogwarts agreed with him. Benjamen had, quite calmly, after the   
hearings suggested to to Albus that he resign from his position as   
Hogwarts headmaster in order to avoid the negative publicity of   
removing him from office that might cause 'incidents'. Hogwarts had   
been Albus's home for as many years as he could remember and never   
had the possibility existed that they would banish him from it.  
  
'It's not anything I don't deserve either.' Albus acknowledged the   
most telling truth that was driving to this action was not that he   
was being driven away from Hogwarts. Albus had lived everywhere on   
Earth from Dracula's castle to the undersea kingdom of the Mermen and   
had slept on beds of nails with Indian pashas to luxurious pillows   
with half-sidhe princesses (though they always had hogged the   
covers). No, the exile from Hogwarts signalled merely the   
recognition about what he should have recognized years before.  
  
"My hubris killed the children of England's witches and wizards and   
nothing more." Albus said the words outloud like the acknowledgement   
of a condemnation from Heaven. The Archwizard lifted up his wand and   
put it to his chin. Tears rolled down again his eyes towards the   
ground as he recalled the horrofic events which had led to this   
moment.  
  
***  
  
Nine Months prior  
Hogwarts Northwest Tower  
9:30 pm  
The Final Battle of the Second Death Eater Uprising  
  
The Army of Voldemort was the greatest gathering of evil creatures   
since the days of the 1905 War between the Nome King and Fairy Kind   
which had led to the Pax Magical unilateral disarment. Hogwarts had   
been cut off from flight escape by the presence of mercanary Dragons,   
Harpies, broom riding Death Eaters, and even a Djinn or two. On the   
ground Voldemort had an army of Giants, Growleywogs, Vampires,   
Werewolves, Mimics, Phafsms, and several manticores. Albus had made   
contact with the peoples of the traditionally evil viewed races as   
best he could and with Remus Lupin and Hagrid's help they had made   
Voldemort's Legion of Darkness half the size that it could  
have been. Albus had predicted this would happen and had prepared   
Hogwart's defenses as best he could against the oncomming assault   
that would mean the difference between liberation from the shadow of   
the Dark Mark for all time and possibly eternal slavery to Voldemort.   
Voldemort knew now Fawkes's tears would grant him immortality if   
brewed in a special potion and it was the perfect pretext for taking   
his revenge.  
  
"You don't honestly believe that you'll win do you Old Man?" the   
voice still made Albus sick to his stomach to hear. Tom Riddle was   
so choked with hatred for the world and everything within it that it   
sounded like he was cursed with a lung infection. Voldemort's black   
oak broomstick was to one side of the evil magician and the two   
Archwizards were alone on the tower's top.  
  
"Your General, Lucius Malfoy has proven himself a coward already   
Voldemort. The students, their parents, and the 'Old School' as I   
call them are defending the castle admirably against your forces.   
Young Master Potter is already engaged with your only remaining   
leader of any skill and once he slays Orek the Giant with   
Gryffindor's sword the tide will have turned to our favor." Albus   
gestured to the battle where magical traps proved the death of   
monster after moster. It was grizzly work that Albus knew would scar   
many of the seniors and juniors of Hogwarts for life but it had to be   
done. Magical illusionary moons caused werewolfs to attack their own   
allies. Specially prepared carpets wrapped up entire groups of   
vampires before flying out of apparation barrier distance to teleport   
to the sunniest spot on Earth. Albus's personal favorite for the   
defense was the Wealsey brothers gigantic exploding bubblegum wrap.  
  
"I can assure you that I will punish Lucius for his cowardice once   
this affair is over. As for what happens to my army, the destruction   
of them all is of little consequence to me. They simply exist to   
distract Hogwart's little army long enough for me to kill you and   
then Potter. The only two wizards in the world who have actually   
ever caught my annoyance long enough for it to blossom into hate."   
Voldemort lifted up his phoneix tail wand and Albus lifted up the   
wand that was the father to it as Potters was it's brother. Voldemort   
had stolen his wand from Albus and it was only fitting that Albus use   
a double to take it back.  
  
"I can assure you Voldemort that death is certainly an unavoidable   
thing today however it is not going to be my death or young Potters   
but you and your dreams of immortality. I am not so bound by   
tradition that the hero of this story has to be the one to deliver   
the killing stroke to the victem." Albus's next words were a torrent   
of war-spells leftover from the Great War and Second World War.   
Battle magic like the kind not seen ever by cowards such as Voldemort   
exploded against the evil Wizard's magical defenses. Albus   
transformed countless spells of entertainment, wonder, and common  
household chores into deadly weapons whose simplicity allowed a dozen   
to be called off for every one of Voldemort's long dark curses.  
  
"Your parlour tricks annoy me Dumbledore. AVADA KREVADA!" Voldemort   
had not become the Dark Lord for nothing and where his own magics   
failed him, the protection he had gleaned from inhuman pacts with   
demons, and the fact he no longer was human at all gave him strength   
to emerge merely wounded from the onslaught.  
  
"ADAVA ADAVERK!" Dumbledore shouted as he lifted up a magical diamond   
from Deepest Africa. The Killing Curse struck the diamond and   
exploded into a dozen beautiful rainbow colors that caused daisies to   
grow from stone, Voldemort's nose to turn blue, and their robe turn   
into handsome shades of pasley.  
  
"WHAT!?" Voldemort stared in outrage before releasing a torrent of   
monsters, windstorms, and worse from his wand.  
  
"You really are a one trick wonder sometimes Little Tommy." Albus   
called Voldemort by his old Hogwarts school nickname. "It was only a   
matter of time before someone...Young Hermione in this   
case...discovered a way around your killing spell. It's all academic   
anyway." Dumbledore was Voldemort's equal, no more, no less as they   
battled on. The only difference was that Tom Marvelo Riddle had paid   
with his immortal soul to achieve what Albus had done by rising to   
the occasion to help his fellow man.  
  
"SILENCE!" Voldemort screamed at the top of his lungs. "Severus   
Snape has betrayed me again! Only through him could you know about   
the intricacies of my spell!" Voldemort lifted himself up in a spell   
that would destroy everything in a ten foot diameter for half a mile.   
Albus merely reached in his pocket to blind the wicked sorcerer with   
flash powder.  
  
"Argh!" Albus spun Voldemort's wand out of his hands and held it away   
from him with a holding spell.  
  
Albus hated the idea of killing a man in cold blood but there was no   
real way around the excessive evil of Lord Voldemort but his utter   
destrcution. The spell Albus had prepared was the only spell in the   
world that would finally forever eradicate Voldemort and it's title   
was the Lament Everlasting. Once cast it would destroy Voldemort's   
body forever and send his soul directly to the abyss it deserved with   
no chance of recovery.  
  
"I have a secret...Albus...curses...foiled by flash powder...a common   
Muggle stage magician's trick." Voldemort couldn't help but laugh   
despite his immenent doom and that made Albus extremely suspicious.  
  
"Do tell as I send you to perdition Voldemort." Albus lifted up his   
wand and pointed it at the evil Wizard. There would be no escape for   
Tom Riddle this time and Albus tried to keep his courage about ending   
a spectre that had haunted him and the Magical lands for decades.  
  
"I've rigged young Master Goyle as a human bomb." Voldemort said with  
dripping malice. Young Goyle had shown the first bit of brains in his  
lifetime when he and young Sir Malfoy had fled back to Hogwarts when   
the Dark Lord had demanded their school chum Crabbe's father cut out   
his son's own heart to prove his loyalty. Malfoy was already proving   
his worth by battling at Harry's side even if his motives were   
selfish and egotistical they were not stupid. Goyle still was a   
coward and Albus had hidden him among the children too young to fight.  
  
Albus wasted no time as he realized Voldemort had let the pair escape   
with such a minium amount of fuss not because they didn't matter but   
because of a plan. Spinning around he lept into the air and with   
flying spell he sailed toward the room where the children were   
protected, ignoring the Dark Lord's escape on broom. Albus hoped for   
a second that Voldemort had fooled him and he had fallen for a bold   
faced lie....  
  
However he was not long believing that.  
  
The explosion tore through Hogwarts shattered every window in the   
building before Albus could even get through the front doors. The   
damage was incredible and Albus had no doubt that whatever spell had   
been placed on Goyle it had utterly annhilated everything around him   
for an half an acre.  
  
With Voldemorts forces in retreat...Hogwart's survivors merely   
stopped to stare in horror at the tragedy that devastated their   
school more surely than Voldemort's forces ever could have.  
  
***  
  
Albus looked at Fawkes as the Phoneix stared at his ultimate betrayal   
of life. Old Al Dumbledore couldn't stand to look at the small bird   
without thinking somewhat of how he had found the poor Phoneix. He'd   
simply been wandering one day when the creature had landed on his   
head at Hogwarts and stayed there all day no matter what he'd done to   
it. It was the 19th century then and he'd only been a second year at   
Gryffindor.  
  
"You'll like it with Harry, Fawkes." Albus said and the Phoneix merely  
continued staring. Young master Potter would feed the Phoneix the   
essence of heroism and decency the immortal being needed to survive   
and which Albus could no longer provide. He'd known for years Harry   
would become Fawke's keeper but he'd hoped it would be under   
different circumstances. Albus had been approached by all of   
Hogwart's teachers to try and cheer him up. Professor Mcgonegal had   
even offered him a part time position teaching transformations in   
order to ease his transition into retirement. It didn't mitagate   
what he'd done to the one people he truly loved however; the   
children. No more would Albus Dumbledore harm and he took a deep   
breath to mutter the Lament Everlasting upon himself.  
  
There was then a rather large and heavy knock at the door.  
  
"Switch and blazes what now." Albus said getting up from his desk and   
going to the door. Outside was a budding woman both lithesome and   
with large round eyes. Her complexion was pale like her fathers and   
her hair the same midnight raven but there was an elegance about  
her which made all of which was unattractive about her father shine   
brightly and beautiful.  
  
"Yes Miss Snape?" Albus said blinking his eyes a bit. Frankly it   
piqued the old wizard's curiousity how the young Slytherin woman had   
managed to sneak around the Bloody Baron, Hogwart's new magical   
defenses, and past Professor McGonnegal. Albus would put in his   
recommendation that she be appointed in his plane, not that there was   
any real question about it. Her heroism had endeared the entire   
Witch and Wizard community to her.   
  
"Hello." Davina Darkstone poked her head past the elegant young   
woman. Davina was a Gryffindor herself yet somehow had become   
Alchema's closet friend at Hogwarts fast enough that already the two   
were inseperable both on and off campus. With Davinia's unknown   
power and Alchema's prodigy nature at lore, Albus suspected there   
would be hades to pay trying to keep them under control. He also   
pitied as well as congradulated any boy who gained the wands to try   
and date one when they were alittle older.  
  
"Well Professor Dumbledore we hate to disturb your most important   
rest this late in the eve especially when such a much honored wizard   
such as yourself must have important work in the works suitable to   
your station..." Alchema's next words were muffled by her friend's   
hand on her mouth.  
  
"What Alchema is trying to say Professor is that she's hear to say   
thanks." Davina removed her hand from Alchema's mouth. Albus   
suspected that the ongoing prank feud that had initially kicked off   
their school year was going to be a continuing one despite their   
friendship.  
  
"I owe you my life for dispatching Master Black to save it and its'   
been weighing on me for sometime. I thought in light of recent   
events you'd like to hear something of that...not to be presumptious   
of course sir." Alchema performed a little curtsy before Albus that   
made him smile.  
  
"Thank you both. However it is very late and I suggest you both go to   
bed. First years can't be found roaming the hall at a time like   
this." Albus shut the door slightly and locked it before putting his   
wand away and deciding to destroy the scroll with the killing spell.   
Fawkes had a look on his face that was disturbingly close to a grin.  
  
"Smugness is a most unbecoming trait in a supernatural creature   
Fawkes." Albus said shaking his fist and the Phoneix flew around the   
room playfully for the first time in months.  
  
-Comments?  
  
Charles Phipps  
tcp@zoomnet.net  



End file.
